From the man who gave us ‘record player’: More money = more trips to the ‘haberdasher’

Come on, Joe Biden isn’t that old! He’s 77, for cripes sake, not 177. So why does he seem to go out of his way to select words straight out of the Old Codgers’ Almanac when speaking extemporaneously on the campaign trail?

His latest is a real doozy. He was at a town hall in the town of Maquoketa, Iowa, where he was evidently talking about economic matters, when he said:

So they buy more of the farm products. They buy more — they go the drugstore more. They go into the — into the — into the haberdasher more. [Emphasis added]

At a town hall in Maquoketa, Iowa this afternoon, Joe Biden talked about people going to "haberdasher."

Had to look it up, but after clipping coupons on the stock market, you cannot buy a record player at a haberdasher. pic.twitter.com/YDtf4faij9

I guess if you ask Biden, he will describe his visit Maquoketa not as a town hall but as a whistle stop, the term politicians used back in the day when they traveled from town to town by train, before they developed them new-fangled flying machines.

This has reached a height of absurdity for the former vice president. When he advised parents to turn on “the record player on at night,” he came close to saying “phonograph.” One has to wonder what other synonyms he was prepared to proffer if necessary to bridge the communication gap: Victrola? Gramophone? When Joe returns home at night after a hard day on the campaign trail, does Dr. Jill remind him to rest his weary head against the antimacassar on his favorite easy chair so that all the Brilliantine in his hair won’t leave a grease stain?